Thursday, March 25, 2010

Apiculture….are you familiar with the word “apiculture”? To be honest with you, I don’t think I have ever heard of it. I happened upon the word when I googled the “honey” in preparation for writing this blog. What I learned is this….Beekeeping (or apiculture, from Latin apis, bee) is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper (or apiarist) keeps bees in order to collect honey and beeswax, to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary. There is an apiary just down the road from the vineyard. The bees love the grape vines!

Now, let’s talk about honey as a natural guard against allergies.

The idea behind eating honey to fight allergies, is kind of like gradually vaccinating the body against allergens, a process called immunotherapy. Honey contains a variety of the same pollen spores that give allergy sufferers so much trouble when flowers and grasses are in bloom. Introducing these spores into the body in small amounts by eating honey should make the body accustomed to their presence and decrease the chance an immune system response like the release of histamine will occur. Since the concentration of pollen spores found in honey is low -- compared to, say, sniffing a flower directly -- then the production of antibodies shouldn't trigger symptoms similar to an allergic reaction. Ideally, the honey-eater won't have any reaction at all.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/local-honey-for-allergies2.htm

You just have to make sure you are eating honey that is truly local. Eating honey from bees even 10 miles away may not help you because chances are, their honey does not contain the pollen from the plants that are making you sneeze! So, buy local!

In a nonreactive saucepan, combine the heavy and light cream and heat just to a simmer.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and honey together until pale, slightly thickened and at the ribbon stage. Slowly add the heated cream, whisking continuously, so as not to cook the yolks.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat and cool over an ice bath. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions.